Central to Hindu philosophy is the concept of the Self or the Atman which is the unchanging phenomenon behind the changeable universe. The Atman is supposed to be changeless, formless, colorless and immanent, indestructible and so on. Knowledge of the Atman, the sages say, will enable us to transcend the dualities of this world.
However, any attempt to know and understand this phenomenon is a difficult task and is fraught with dangers. We can easily start hallucinating or imagining things that are not true. As the Gita says that only a true yogi who is completely disciplined in mind, body and spirit can probably attempt such profound knowledge.
However closer to the earth, we mortals can definitely attempt to understand ourselves better. We have to look inward into ourselves. We need to understand why we react the way we react. We need to look into ourselves and find out what is it that causes us to be impatient, to be intolerant, to get angry, or makes us swell with pride or conceit.
Rather than chasing some difficult concept as the Atman, Brahman we need to get down to earth into the journey into ourselves. Why are we so proud? Why do we crave for attention? What makes us sad?
These are questions for which the answers only we have. It is all based on our inner beliefs, our convictions and our view of what is right and what is beautiful. Before judging somebody we need to look into ourselves and look at our beliefs of what is it that is correct behavior. While it is likely that the other person had transgressed, it is equally likely that our understanding of what is correct behavior in the given circumstances could be wrong.
Hence we have a lot of answers within ourselves. Sometimes we have to correct our view of the world. Once we understand ourselves better, and on why we behave the way we do we can understand the world better and why people behave the way they do.
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